This is Rick Lehrbaum’s Etch installation and it employs Automatix. I used it several months ago and have no problems whatsoever. Perhaps that’s because Etch is Debian Stable and doesn’t change except for security updates. My experience has been very positive.

No, I don’t.. but you can probably get one off the vmware appliances page that is close enough for government work.

That said, I don’t really count on the Automatix people changing too much. I remember when they “demanded” their removal from the Ubuntu forums because people in other support forums were recommending the UbuntuGuide over the automatix..

Still, I’m glad someone took my advice and wrote a solid reference on the technical shortcomings of Automatix.

I used automatix back before Feisty (I think , even before Edgy.. yeah.. it was dapper.) I asked repeatedly if it was safe, and was told by Ubuntu knowledgeable people that it was not safe. I asked Automatix people, and was told by them that it was basically a bunch of Ubuntu ____’s (I’ll let you fill in the word) who were pissed off because automatix did what Ubuntu couldn’t do because they were stupid. Despite my better judgement (and , for ease of use) I went ahead and used automatix.

Now, fastforward to the upgrade. I tried to upgrade dapper->edgy. The resultant system would not start cleanly At all. So I decided to do an experiment. I reinstalled, and set up an ubuntu vm. On one of those vms, I used standard practices to upgrade stuff and install stuff. On the other, I used automatix. I then upgraded each machine ten times. (I love snapshots.) The Automatix side broke every time. It broke the same way every time. The “standard upgrade” side did not.

I mentioned this to someone else, and was told “Yeah.. don’t mention that to the automatix guys. They don’t take this type of thing well.”

If they take it better nowadays, all the better.. but I won’t be using automatix ever again. They’re cocky and arrogant, and they cause more fights and trouble than the few packages they install solve.

Is this rift worth pointing out (sort of like “Hey, watch where you’re stepping — you’re next to the Grand Canyon” as apposed to cracks in the sidewalk)? If this is one of those dangerous topics, then I guess it’s a good thing to know about.